1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure and a method for mounting an LED to an apparatus such as a camera.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When an LED unit which includes an LED (light-emitting diode) and a lens element positioned immediately in front of the LED is mounted to another component or product, no adjustment is formerly made to the orientation of the LED unit; conventionally, the LED unit is merely fixed to a mounting portion formed on such a component or a product. Upon the LED unit being fixed to the mounting portion of such a component or a product, the LED unit is pointed in a fixed direction. Therefore, if the LED unit emits light precisely in a designed direction, the light thus emitted travels in a desired direction.
Such a conventional mounting structure is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3228859.
As described above, the orientation of the LED unit does not have to be adjusted when being mounted to another component or product if the LED unit emits light precisely in a designed direction.
However, for instance, the manufacturing tolerances of low-cost LED units vary widely (due to, e.g., positional deviations of the lenses relative to the LEDs in the LED units), and accordingly, it is often the case that the light-emitting directions of the low-cost LED units are mutually different depending on the LED unit. Therefore, in the case where this low-cost type of LED unit is mounted to another component or product, the orientation of the LED unit needs to be adjusted.
However, there is no structure or mechanism known in the art which allows the LED unit to be mounted to another component or product while allowing an adjustment of the orientation of the LED unit.